Keedah, as once more he swam up along side of Umboo and his mother.

"What?" asked the little elephant who was having such a nice ride
across the river. "What are you going to do?"

"I am going to have a slide down hill," went on Keedah, who did not
seem to be going to make any more trouble.

"What's sliding down hill?" asked Umboo, and of course, you
understand, all this talk was in animal language.

"Sliding down hill is fun," went on Keedah. "You know Old Tusker went
up to the top of a place, called a hill, to look and see about the
hunters in the jungle. Well, there is a hill on the other side of this
river, and when we get across I'm going to the top of it and slide
down.

"It's hard work going up hill," went on the larger elephant boy, "but
it's easy coming down. You just sit on your hind legs, hold your trunk
up in the air and down you come as fast as anything!"

"And be careful you don't bump into anything," said Mrs. Stumptail.
"Sliding down hill is all right if you don't bump into anything. You
must be careful, Umboo. Don't slide down any hills unless you ask me
first."

"I won't," promised the baby elephant. "But tell me more about it,
Keedah. Did you ever slide down hill?"

"Many a time. I was with the herd last year when we swam this same